The Super Bowl
by Runciman1903
Summary: Giselle learns that something like fairy tales can happen in this world too. But when you pit one against the other, they can't both have a happy ending.
1. The Pre Game Show

She couldn't see the sky. 

The roof was closed at the University of Phoenix stadium, as Robert and Giselle tiptoed throught the crowd to their seats. She was disappointed not to see the sun shining down, but if Super Bowl weekend had taught her anything, it was that you can't expect life to go perfectly. 

It all started after the ball dropped in Times Square (no dragon crashed that party, thank goodness). Giselle kept hearing about a big to do with football in February, but she was too busy learning how to start a clothing business to give it much thought. Almost by accident, she found herself, Robert and Morgan watching the New York Giants play in the wild-card round on TV, and something inside her clicked. It reminded her at first of those jousts Edward mentioned where he and the other knights of Andalasia showed off their fighting skills. But no horses were slamming into each other this time, just men. She both shuddered and thrilled at the sound. She was impressed by the teamwork it took for players to move the ball forward (or stop it in its tracks). Something told her Edward wouldn't have done well at this game unless he could figure out a way to catch his own passes...

During the division round, Robert told Giselle what the Super Bowl was like for him as a college student at Stanford in the 1980's. It was the best of both worlds: he could root for the 49ers (as he lived near San Francisco), or he could cheer on the Giants (as he grew up in New York). He had fond memories of parties and crashing on a friend's cousin's couch in Pasadena before seeing the Giants win at the Rose Bowl. Back then, Robert mused, you could get tickets to the Super Bowl for less than tickets to a Broadway show now. 

Giselle never thought anything could be as cold as the wind whipping through Manhattan in January - until the broadcasters mentioned the temperature at Lambeau Field.

"Why don't they put a roof over it?", she asked Robert during the frigid conference final between New York and Green Bay.

"Well, fans like to think they can put up with what Mother Nature has to offer same as the players", he replied.

"Like the ones with F-A-V-R-E spelled on their chests?" 

The phone rang during halftime, and Robert seemed so surprised by what was being said that he started to nod, forgetting that the caller couldn't see him. "Oh, right! Well Pat, that's quite an offer. I'm honored that you'd think of me just now. Actually, Nancy and I have split up. It was best for both of us. But someone else has found me in the meantime. Anyway, can I run this by Giselle and get back to you after the game?...Ha ha, no she is not Tom Brady's girlfiend. I'll call you back, and thanks again." Click.

"What was that about?" Giselle asked, her curiousity piqued. 

"You remember my friend in college who's cousin's couch I crashed on? Patrick Coyne. We run across each other in court from time to time. He got tickets to see the Giants in the Super Bowl back then, and he may have for this year too."

"May have?"

"He has four tickets to the big game, but his brother-in-law broke a leg skiing in Aspen. So that frees up two seats, and he's offered them to me." 

"Oh Robert, I'm sure you and Morgan will have a great time." 

"Morgan? I meant for the two of us to go."

"Why not me too?", Morgan asked. 

"Because, young lady, a Super Bowl party is no place for a 6-year old, as I recall. Besides, it wouldn't feel right dragging you all the way to Glendale, Arizona just to bribe some hotel usher to keep an eye on you come game day."

"Would you want to go even if the Packers win tonight?", Giselle asked. 

"To see the Packers and Patriots? No. We could order takeout from Bella Notte and watch the game here. It would be fun. But that's just it, Giselle. Most people get their tickets before the winners are decided. If their team loses beforehand, they can still go to parties and hang out with royalty before the game. We'd actually have someone to root for."

"Royalty?", Giselle asked. "So what was all that I heard from the park ranger about the Battle of Brooklyn? I thought Americans fought to get rid of them."

"Oh, we still have princes and princesses, in all but name. They're the rich and famous. So, do you want to go to the Super Bowl, Giselle?" 

"With you I will", she said with a smile.

The three cheered and hugged each other after the Giants won the game in overtime on a field goal. Robert called his secretary Sam, and worked out a deal with vacation time in return for her taking in Morgan on Super Bowl weekend. One more call to Pat Coyne sealed the deal. Robert cautioned Giselle that rooms would be hard to find in AZ at such a late date. "Even the couches may be all taken by now. We might have to sleep in a tent out in the desert, with nothing but the prairie dogs for company." 

"I'd like to meet them". 


	2. Introductions

There certainly were enough distractions to go around. 

Marchers, floats, pictures and sounds flooded the arena, and kickoff was still an hour away. Giselle wondered how one was supposed to take it all in. Multi-tasking, was that the word? It seemed to her you missed more that way. So Giselle pushed all the sound and fury off to the side, and focused on the two people she and Robert could thank for making it to the Super Bowl.

"Giselle," said Robert, "I'd like you to meet Pat & Patti Coyne. We'd be back home ordering buffalo wings now if it wasn't for them." Giselle met a professional-looking couple in their 40's, sporting new Giants jerseys and a couple of mildly sunburned faces.

"Mr & Mrs Coyne, thank you so much for inviting us," she said, shaking their hands. "I know so many wish they could be here. And of course, Robert has told me about the first time he got to see the Giants play in the Super Bowl, thanks to you."

"Ah, cousin Bill's couch," recalled Pat. "That was a long time ago. That jersey looks like you used it as a pillow that night. He he." Patti winced slightly at the joke about Giselle's lived-in looking Giants jersey.

"Not quite that old," Robert explained in a casual manner, sensing that a smart remark could make for a long few hours ahead. "It shrank in the wash so I tossed it in the closet and forgot about it. Giselle did some organizing one day...", he waited for her to finish.

"...and found it was just my size," Giselle added. "Oh, I was just going to wear it for odd jobs around the place. Then you called, and I knew it had to make the trip with us."

The Coynes grinned, and there was an awkward moment of silence until Pat looked at his watch. "Look at the time! Gotta get in line for some munchies, or we'll still be there come kickoff!"

So Robert and Giselle shuffled past the Coynes into their seats, where she found herself next to a woman of 40 in a Tedy Bruschi Patriots jersey. Giselle didn't set out to crack the ice with her new neighbor. She just said off-handedly...

"They closed the roof."

"Hmm?", the Patriots fan asked.

"I thought I'd see the sun shining down, being out in the desert."

"Oh, something to do with all the wind outside."

"I thought they played football in all kinds of weather."

"They do, until it's the Super Bowl", the Pats fan replied. "Then the fat cats with tickets want to stay warm and dry."

"Like you?", Giselle asked with a smile.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm a gym teacher." The Pats fan gently punched the shoulder of the fellow next to her in a Super Bowl XXXIX tee shirt. "Paul here is to thank for our being here now. He pinched pennies and pulled strings for a year to get tickets and hotel reservations." Paul looked a bit sheepish. "He'd bring a banana and a granola bar to work when the other techs went to the deli for lunch. He'd order up CD's at the library to add songs to his iPod. And all this time I thought he was being a cheapskate!" 

"Well, cold cuts are pricey," Paul added with a shrug, though Giselle could tell he was proud that his hard work had paid off.

"She must be very special to you."

Paul was taken aback for a second. Hearing this from someone he had met not 5 minutes ago should have seemed cloying and presumptuous. And yet...it didn't. Not from her. 

"She is," he said simply. 

"I'm Sharon," said the gym teacher.

"Giselle, and this is Robert", as all shook hands.

"So," said Sharon to Giselle, "you're team's the one thing standing between us and a perfect season."

"Well, who wants to hear a story where everything goes perfectly?"


	3. The National Anthem

Giselle loved music, except for the song coming up just now.

"AND NOW WILL YOU PLEASE RISE," boomed the public address announcer, "FOR THE SINGING OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM."

Musically speaking, it was as if Narissa had plucked Giselle from her vegetable garden, and dropped her into the middle of a supermarket aisle. Once she knew her place was here with Robert and Morgan, she looked forward to hearing all the music this world had to offer. The radio stations were happy to oblige - rock, country, blues; she inhaled it all. She told herself she'd learn Spanish one day, after she and Morgan danced to Richie Havens' "La Bamba" on the oldies station. Her first Broadway musical was a night she would never forget. And yet, there was something odd about how familiar the tunes seemed - had someone from Andalasia made it here before? Morgan later tried to explain how a stack of compact discs worth of music could be squeezed into a device small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. But Giselle thought that picking the songs ahead of time spoiled the surprise. Besides, all the walkers and commuters she saw every day wrapped up in the music plugged into their ears looked kind of lonely. She felt a bit lazy for not coming up with any new songs herself lately, but there were just so many to choose from.

As for "The Star Spangled Banner"? Giselle could tell, from all the ups and downs, that it was not an easy song to sing. She asked Robert once where the melody had come from.

"Oh, something to do with a drinking song, I believe."

"Like '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall'?"

The lyrics mystified her, too. Robert and Edward had both showed courage to defend someone they loved. But risking your life to defend a piece of cloth with stars and stripes on it? Not to mention how the news seemed every night to mention "bombs bursting" somewhere. She would rather hear a song about how people come to America to write new stories for themselves. But maybe that's too much to ask for a 3 minute song.

Or perhaps, she thought, America is made of stories, and the flag is just a starting point, like "Once Upon a Time..."

So Giselle heard the latest American Idol sing a story from America's past, and looked forward to adding her own story to the tale (well, she'd keep some details to herself...).

(I made a mistake describing the University of Phoenix Stadium on the day of Super Bowl XLII; the roof was closed because of rain in the forecast - P.J.)


	4. First Half

Everywhere she looked, the clock was ticking.

Whether it was Morgan's teacher or Robert's judge, they both made use of every minute given to them, even recess (both kinds). Time didn't march in a straight line like that in Andalasia - the sun & moon rose and set, then it was time for another adventure. Of course, there wasn't so much as a sundial around to keep track of it all. Watching the opening drive, it dawned on Giselle that you could stretch out the minutes, as well as squeeze them tight.

After the kickoff, the Giants trudged down the field into Patriots territory. The hard-fought passes and rushes were short, but the yards added up.

"Are they doing that on purpose?", Giselle asked Robert. "I've seen Eli throw passes a lot farther than that."

"There's no hurry. They want to keep the ball out of Brady's hands."

"Ah, they're eating on the clock."

New York scored a field goal after eating on the clock for almost 10 minutes. New England picked up the pace with a 40+ yard return. The Patriots were within field goal range at the end of the quarter when a Giants penalty brought them all the way to the 1-yard line. A touchdown run at the start of the 2nd quarter made it 7-3 New England.

Then, slow moving traffic turned into gridlock. The Giants kept sacking Brady, but they couldn't put on any long drives themselves. With all the tv commercials thrown in, it made for a very stop-and-go game.

"So," asked Sharon during one timeout, "do you understand much about football, Giselle?"

"Well, I know you get three or four chances to move the ball ten yards. I couldn't name all the positions if you tossed me in a dungeon. That Tom Brady is an amazing story, though. Nobody thought he had greatness in him, until he proved them wrong."

"Yeah", said Sharon, rolling her eyes, "and now he lives happily ever after with his supermodel girlfriend in New York."

"So I hear. I guess I became a Giants fan the day I heard something on the radio about Giants versus Bears. I pictured a terrible battle with trees uprooted and fur flying everywhere. Then I saw the highlights on television, and it was just plain old men."

Sharon and Paul burst out laughing, though Sharon couldn't help but notice something nervous about Robert's smile.

"I was relieved," summed up Giselle, "but a little disappointed, too."

The fans stood up and stretched as the clock hit 0:00, the score still Patriots 7, Giants 3. Robert watched the road crew set up the stage for the halftime show, and recalled Sharon mentioning Paul working with 'techs'.

"So, what do you do Paul?"

"I'm a cableman for the phone company. A lot of crawling around underground drying out wet cables after it rains."

"Ah, seen any alligators in the sewers?"

"No, although there was this one strange thing that I heard happen right in New Y-"

"Oh, honey please," interrupted Sharon. "Stop adding fuel to that fire."

"What? I'm just saying I heard it from..."

"Someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone else. Yeah, that would stand up in court."

"Can I finish my story?", asked Paul with growing irritation.

Sharon shrugged.

"Anyway, the story goes that three cable techs in Times Square last year opened up a manhole cover to investigate something. Then, out pops a guy dressed like the Jack of Hearts and packing a sword! Says he'll run them through unless they tell him where his beloved what's-her-name is. They point him anywhere but there, and he goes."

Paul was not a great storyteller, but this one always killed wherever he told it. Now? Not a chuckle. They both had the same nervous smile Robert displayed earlier. Did they think?...

"Or so I've been told," he added hastily.

It seemed as good as time as any to step out. As Paul & Sharon excused themselves, Patrick Coyne asked Giselle if she was looking forward to the Tom Petty concert.

"Oh yes, it's my first."


	5. Halftime Show

Giselle had asked Robert once what a rock concert was like in person.

"I hear that the best musicians bring something extra to the stage. Not that I've ever seen one on television. Morgan looked up MTV for me, but I couldn't find any music there at all."

"Oh, I saw some unknown bands perform in college, and most of them stayed that way...Oh my God!", Robert exclaimed. "I completely forgot. I took Morgan's mother to see Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium. We were dating, and I wanted to impress her. That was something else. The crowd jumped up and down in time to the music. Our ears rang for an hour after the concert, from all the songs blasting out of the loudspeakers. Of course," he shrugged, "someone spilled a cup of beer over my head, too. Well, we had a good laugh over that later."

Giselle now wanted to take all that in herself (except for the spilled drinks part), as the halftime show began. Robert had dug up his Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits CD before the trip, and asked if she wanted to give a listen. "No," she declined, "I want to hear them for the first time." As Petty plucked his guitar strings, 'doong! doong! doong!', the crowd seemed louder for the band than it had at any time during the first half. She half wondered if she could make out what the song was about over the noise, but the lyrics came through loud and clear:

"Well she was an American girl

Raised on promises

She couldn't help but thinkin' that there

Was a little more to life

Somewhere else

After all it was a great big world

With lots of places to run to"

Giselle's arms dropped, as she heard what seemed to be her life story sung for all the world to hear.

"Yeah, and if she had to die

Tryin' she had one little promise

She was gonna keep

Oh yeah, all right

Take it easy baby

Make it last all night

She was an American girl"

She and Edward had made promises to one another, and look where they were now. Out of one eye, she spotted Robert glancing at her.

"Well, it was kind of cold that night

She stood alone on her balcony

She could hear the cars roll by

Out on 441

Like waves crashing on the beach"

There was a balcony on a cold night in my story too, Giselle thought, but I was never as alone as this poor girl.

"And for one desperate moment there

He crept back in her memory

God it's so painful

Something that's so close

And still so far out of reach"

She supposed Edward and her would have been happy together, if Narissa had been content to run things behind the scenes. There would have been nothing new to learn about each other before long, though. But she still missed her woodland friends in Andalasia, who were 'so far out of reach'.

"Oh yeah, all right

Take it easy baby

Make it last all night

She was an American girl"

Robert had been paying attention to the lyrics as well. It hadn't escaped him how much the girl's life mirrored Giselle's. He also marveled at how a joyful guitar riff could make fans clap and cheer for such a sad song. As it wound down, he turned to her, half expecting to see tears in her eyes. She did look sad, but upon seeing his expression she smiled and slowly shook her head.

"I hope the rest of his songs are a bit more cheerful."

"It's the Super Bowl - only one sad song allowed."

So they held hands, and swayed to 'I Won't Back Down', with Giselle chipping in at the end:

"Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out

Hey I will stand my ground

And I won't back down

No I won't back down"


	6. 3rd Quarter

The 3rd quarter proved to be much like the 2nd, with neither the Patriots nor the Giants able to get near the end zone. During one TV timeout, Pat asked Robert how he and Giselle had enjoyed their weekend in Glendale before kickoff.

"Uh, you tell me about your weekend first."

"Well, we've been here since Wednesday. There was this 'Big Ticket Gala' in Scottsdale that evening. Jay Leno told jokes, and all sorts of celebs and football stars signed a Harley that was auctioned off. It raised money for the Super Bowl Host Committee and the Hall of Fame. Funny," Pat mused, "you wouldn't think either one would be strapped for cash."

"We went on a bus tour around the desert", added Patty, "and there was this concert near our hotel where I had to explain to Pat who Mary J Blige is. How about you two?"

"Well, we were lucky enough to find a motel with one last vacant room - the kind where the remote control is chained to the wall."

"Ah, the Oasis," sighed Giselle. "How that young man dived from the roof into the pool straight between those two girls I'll never know."

"Call Beijing!", Pat piped in.

"Yeah, music booming all night made much more sense when I was 20," Robert reflected. "We tried to mingle with the party goers, but that didn't turn out well."

"What happened, some kid who had one too many throw up on Giselle's shoes? He he," Pat chuckled.

"How'd you know that?", Giselle asked, astonished.

Robert winced, and the Coynes were dumbstruck for a moment. "Ah, that's a good one Giselle…is it?", asked Patty weakly.

"Well", she shrugged, as the Giants punted again, "Cinderella never had that problem with her shoes. They did apologize, though."

A New York penalty gave New England its best chance to add to the lead. But another sack of Brady, plus a gamble on 4th down where a field goal was within reach, made short work of that drive.

As the whistle sounded to end the quarter, Patty turned to Giselle. "I know this trip hasn't been a dream getaway for you two. And I know it's a cliché, but things can always be worse. My newspaper sent me here because they wanted a Super Bowl story for once with no football players or celebs in it."

"And what story did you find?"

"A female chain gang, can you believe it? There's maybe two in the whole country."

"Chain gang?"

"I know, it sounds like something from your grandfather's time. But now states are saying 'Why should we pay good money for jobs that prisoners will do it for free?' So here are these female inmates, within sight of the 'NFL Experience Ferris Wheel', picking up trash & pulling weeds."

"Ah, and what did the villains do to get there?", Giselle asked with an air of satisfaction. Robert's jaw clenched; he was angry at himself. It was so much fun showing her what life here had to offer that it was easy to forget that life isn't fair. So Giselle would now hear that firsthand from a woman she barely knew – and not from him.

"Villains?", Patty asked. "Giselle, I don't know anything about what you learned growing up. But from what I've seen, there are bad people, and there are people who make bad decisions. Anyway, it wasn't my job to find out what they were convicted of. I was there to hear their stories. They told me about getting two meals a day, and feeling hungry all the time. One girl joked that the mystery meat was ostrich. None of them are football fans, but like she said, 'We've got to clean up that Super Bowl.'"

"Yes, it's very sad", Pat said offhandedly.

"I thought…", said Giselle, then trailed off. Thought what? That the good guys always win? That crime doesn't pay? Anyone would deserve three square meals after a hard day's work like that – even Narissa. "Was there anything else you could do for them?"

Patty smiled sadly, and shook her head.

"Well, I'm gonna stretch my legs before the whistle", Pat remarked.

"I'll join you," Patty said with an air of relief.

Giselle stared glumly at the field below, while Robert tried to think of something to say. A couple of fans were tiptoeing past them when the guy asked his girlfriend for the time. She checked her watch – and promptly spilled half her popcorn into Giselle's lap. Giselle smiled and nodded as the girl apologized, to be polite. Then she started absently munching on the popcorn.

"Giselle, I'm sure you didn't mean it like that."

"Yes I did, Robert. I thought I was better than them. They're the bad guys, right? And if I had been the one hearing their stories, it wouldn't have made a difference. What could I do for them, sing?"

An image popped into Robert's head, uninvited, of Giselle trying to cheer up the chain gang with a hearty rendition of "Come my little friends / As we all sing a happy little working song / Merry little voices clear and strong / Come and roll your sleeves up…"

Giselle held up a kernel of popcorn. "And they'll be cleaning up all the spilled popcorn and hot dog wrappers while the rest of us are going home."

"Well, I'm sure the stadium's staff will do most of the cleanup after…" Robert knew this was not what she meant. So he took a stab at it: "People give money to good causes all the time. But when you take what you're good at, and use it to help others, you give something of yourself, too."

A light seemed to go off in Giselle's head, and she slowly smiled at Robert. Oh great, he thought. He was about to point out that security would not appreciate any unauthorized cleanup projects, when they both overheard Sharon say to Paul, "Boy, this 4th quarter will be a doozy. There won't be an empty seat in the house."

At that, Robert simply smiled and nodded. "Odd jobs, huh?"


	7. 4th Quarter

Paul and Sharon sat, dejected, as the Giants kicked the extra point to give themselves a 10-7 lead over The Patriots. "Oh come on, hon", he reassured her. "There's 11 minutes left, plenty of time to...go."

He couldn't help but notice Giselle tiptoeing past them back to her seat. She had apparently done her best to wash her hands and face, but her jeans were dusty, and her Giants jersey, now bundled under her arm, looked like it had been used to wash a truck.

Giselle saw their curious expressions, and as she sat down, quickly explained, "Oh, I'm all right. Just took a little tumble, that's all."

"Down a well?", Sharon asked.

"Sharon, please", Paul muttered.

Giselle had seen that nervous smile by Robert before, and knew what it meant - change the subject, please. Lucky for her, the scoreboard was happy to comply.

"Oh! The Giants scored, what did I miss?"

"Well", summed up Sharon, "Peyton's kid brother Eli hurled one, what, 45 yards? And New York kept chipping away until they scored just now."

"Ah", thought Giselle out loud, "nobody ever takes the youngest son seriously, until he gets the chance to prove himself."

"Well, somebody's youngest son will be the winning quarterback tonight," Sharon pointed out.

Robert waited until the crowd was good and loud for the kickoff, before quietly asking Giselle, "How'd it go?"

"Oh, the prairie dogs and mice were just itching to gobble up the leftovers lying around, but they were nervous about people showing up. I assured them they had the hallways all to themselves for the next few minutes, so they went at it. Too bad about all that dust they brought in. Should have seen that coming..."

"I mean, did anybody see you?"

"Just the janitor."

"What? What did he say?"

"Something about, how his sister had wasted money on psychics and fortune tellers for years, and yet he's the one who meets a real, live witch. Me, a witch! What would Narissa say about that?"

"And what did you say to him?"

"After we did our best to sweep out the dust?" Giselle put a finger to her lips, and softly said "Shhhhhh."

"Oh."

For the next three drives neither team could get even one first down, until the Pats finally went on a long march. 11 yards here, 12 yards there, the passes added up. Then one of the Giants defenders slipped. Seeing Randy Moss wide open in the end zone, Brady found his favorite target. After the extra point, New England was up 14-10.

Fans of both teams roared as the kickoff was set to begin, but Robert just sat and stared at the field. Something told Giselle this was not because he doubted the Giants could score a TD in the last 2:42.

"Robert?"

"I'm sorry, Giselle. Some dream weekend this has turned out to be, what with the loud music and shoes and...cleanup on Aisle 5. I brought you out here because I wanted to impress you. Hell," he added, rolling his eyes. "I wanted to impress my friends and co-workers, too - I took my girl to the Super Bowl."

Giselle searched for the right words for a moment. "Robert, you don't have to do anything to impress me. I'd be impressed back home with Morgan, watching this and munching on buffalo wings. But I never would have met the Coynes, or Sharon and Paul. Never would have heard about the chain gang or...Edward. As for the music and shoes, who wants to hear a story where you sleep soundly and your shoes stay clean? And as for the game?" She pulled back on the now filthy Giants jersey, "It's not over yet. LET'S GO GIANTS!" Robert could have sworn the receiver picked her voice out of the crowd.

After a first down, New York almost turned the ball over, but it slipped through the fingers of New England's defender. Such a big field, thought Giselle, but an inch or two can make all the difference. The Giants were still shy of midlfield, though, with just over a minute to go. Then the Patriots swirled around Manning, and her lungs seemed to deflate. It was like watching suds go down the drain. "I...can't...breathe", she whispered, half to herself.

Suddenly, Eli broke free, and hurled the ball into the air. On and on it went. At last, it came down into the waiting helmet(?) of the receiver, David Tyree. She kept waiting for the ball to bounce away...but it didn't. At that, she exhaled her last ounce of air with a deep "ohhhhhh", and sucked in oxygen as if she'd watched the whole drive under water. She laughed and laughed. The next couple of plays were a blur to Giselle, maybe because her brain was still playing catch up from the lack of air. But she wiped the tears from her eyes in time to see the touchdown pass with 0:35 to go.

The Patriots tried their best to get within field goal range, but it wasn't to be. Robert and Giselle hugged, as Eli took the knee with a second left to wrap it up. They shook hands with the Coynes, and thanked them for giving them the chance to see such a great game in person. They turned to Sharon and Paul, to offer the usual 'they played hard and had a great season' saying that no fan finds comforting. Sharon, gazing out at the celebration on the field, let slip, "I wish we..." and caught herself. But Giselle didn't need a magic mirror to finish that thought. Paul didn't either:

"I wish we hadn't come."

Robert had told Giselle about how marriages can break up from the simplest of things, thoughts said or unsaid. Giselle suddenly saw the same thing happening to Sharon and Paul. So she looked to her and said, "You know, Sharon, people come here because they love football. They love seeing royalty, being royalty. Paul came here because he loves you."

Sharon opened her mouth, but could think of nothing to say. She grinned sheepishly, and turned back to Paul, who still had a hurt expression. "This has been the best weekend of my life. Thank you." A look of relief came over Paul, and they kissed.

"Ah well," said Robert as he dialed home on his cell phone, "maybe all the Pats fans back at the Oasis will just sit and sulk tonight. We can finally get a good night's sleep. Oh, and Giselle, promise me one thing."

"Of course."

"When they have the ticker-tape parade back home to welcome the Giants, you'll let the city clean it up."

Giselle just laughed.

Robert got an answer. "Sam, Robert. Thanks again for watching Morgan. Wasn't the game something else? Is she still up? Good, put her on." He handed the phone to Giselle.

"Morgan, dear, I've missed you. We'll see you after school Monday. Wasn't that an amazing catch? Well, maybe Robert and you can go next time – I think one Super Bowl is enough for me. Did I what? Yes, I finally did meet the prairie dogs."

THE END

(Amy Adams was robbed of an Oscar nomination, in my humble opinion. So I hope you like this tribute to her performance. And for the record, I read about the female chain gang in the Boston Globe a few days before the Super Bowl - yes, I'm a Patriots fan.)


End file.
